Georgia, Korea, Spain and France divide Gold in Algiers World Cup

All four Sabre World Cup events in Algiers deliver medals across the board but Korea, France and Italy stand out.

ALGIERS, Algeria, Nov. 10-13:

Men’s Sabre

Georgia’s Sandro Bazadze has earned his fifth World Cup medal this weekend with a win over Italy’s Luigi Samele, 15-13 in the final of the individual event. In the semifinals, he ended a run of upsets by Egypt’s Ziad Elsissy, who had beaten four higher seeded competitors in a row up to that point.

In the team event, Korea succeeded over Iran, 45-34, to win gold. In the semifinals, Korea previously crushed France, 45-19, while Iran secured a victory against Germany, 45-42. The bronze medal match came down to another close win as Germany defeated France, 45-43.

Team USA placed about as expected, coming in as the 6th seed team and finishing 7th. Daryl Homer and Eli Dershwitz placed 10th and 11th in the individual rounds, earning a solid top-16 finish for the American competitors.

Women’s Sabre

In the women’s events, Spain’s Lucia Martin-Portugues earned her first World Cup gold with a win over Italy’s Michela Battiston, 15-12 in the finals. In the semifinals, Battiston had beaten France’s Sara Balzer, 15-13, and Martin-Portugues had secured a win over Greece’s Theodora Gkountoura, 15-8.

There were several upsets in the individual event, with many of the top 16 seeds unable to make it out of the table of 64, including Azerbaijan’s Anna Bashta (2nd seed), France’s Caroline Queroli (5th seed) and Manon Apithy-Brunet (8th seed), Germany’s Larissa Eifler,and  Bulgaria’s Ilieva Yoana (15th seed). Battiston won several upsets to secure her silver medal placement from a 60th seed, including a win over Queroli and another over fellow Italian Martina Criscio (16th seed).

In the team event, France just defeated Italy, 45-44, to win gold having just come off a close win over Spain, 45-41, in the semifinals. Italy secured their semifinal win over Korea, 45-32, who went on to win the bronze medal match over Spain, 45-36, to round out the top four.

Team USA placed 15th in the team event and had three top-32 finishes with Maia Chamberlain (16), Tatiana Nazlymov (26) and Magda Skarbonkiewicz (28). 

Finals Results Men’s Sabre

Individual

1. Sandro Bazadze (GEO, gold)
2. Luigi Samele (ITA, silver)
3. Bolade Apithy (FRA, bronze)
4. Ziad Elsissy (EGY, bronze)
5. Maxime Pianfetti (FRA)
6. Iulian Teodosiu (ROU)
7. Gu Bongil (KOR)
8. Matyas Szabo (GER)

Team

1. Korea (gold)
2. Iran (silver)
3. Germany (bronze)
4. France
5. Italy
6. Hungary
7. USA
8. Japan

Finals Results Women’s Sabre

Individual

1. Lucia Martin-Portugues (ESP, gold)
2. Michela Battiston (ITA, silver)
3. Sara Balzer (FRA, bronze)
4. Theodora Gkountoura (GRE, bronze)
5. Despina Georgiadou (GRE)
6. Martina Criscio (ITA)
7. Margaux Rifkiss (FRA)
8. Caitlin Maxwell (GBR)

Team

1. France (gold)
2. Italy (silver)
3. Korea (bronze)
4. Spain
5. Azerbaijan
6. Hungary
7. Japan
8. Uzbekistan 

Full results can be found on the FIE Competitions page or here.